Entries from December 2016

AUBURN - Rayford Bramlett, 85, went to be with the Lord on Wednesday, December 21, 2016. He was the son of the late W. B. and Arlene Walker Bramlett. Rayford had resided in Barrow County for most of his life, where he raised cattle and poultry, and was a school bus driver for 28 years for the Barrow County School System. He was a longtime ...
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WINDER - Franklin D. “Red” Harwell Jr., 92, passed away Sunday, December 25, 2016. A native of Danielsville, he was the son of the late Franklin D. Harwell, Sr. and Ola Moore Harwell. Mr. “Red” married LaVerne Jones on December 13, 1944. He was the operator of Harwell Aero Service and the Winder Airport for 20 years. Mr. “Red” had ...
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BRASELTON - Rev. Clinton Earl Gooch, 82, passed away Thursday, December 22, 2016, at his residence. Rev. Gooch was born November 12, 1934, in White County, the son of the late Warren George Gooch and Coral Estelle Palmer Gooch. He loved preaching and singing everywhere he went with the traveling gospel groups that he sang with. He was preceded ...
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WINDER - Vera Davis Pace, 83, entered into rest Thursday, December 22, 2016. Mrs. Pace was born in Jefferson, the daughter of the late Thomas P. and Zipporah Hays Davis. She was a member of Nazareth United Methodist Church, and was retired from Mitsubishi Electronics. Mrs. Pace was preceded in death by a son, John Beatty; grandson, Joe Beatty; ...
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A Winder man was arrested Thursday in connection with 25 car burglaries in several different neighborhoods since last weekend.

According to a Winder Police Department news release, Calvin Barnes, 18, of Huckleberry Lane in Winder, has been charged with 25 total felony counts of entering auto and one misdemeanor count of theft by receiving stolen property. He was transported to the Barrow County Detention Center.

Police received numerous calls earlier this week in reference to cars being entered in several neighborhoods in close proximity of each other. The crimes were all committed within a couple of days, and Barnes emerged as the prime suspect. He was found to be on active probation for convictions of theft and entering auto that Winder police charged him with in February 2015.

Police conducted a search of Barnes’ home and were able to recover many of the items reported missing over the past few days. Of all the vehicles that were entered, only one of them was locked by the owner. The rest of them had been left unlocked.

The investigation is still ongoing and more information will be released as it becomes available.

A burglary of the Target store in Bethlehem this week is "consistent with" other burglaries committed in middle Georgia, West Virginia and Tennessee, according to investigators.

The store was broken into about 1:50 a.m. Tuesday when two suspects entered by cutting through the roof and dropping down into a restroom area. The suspects broke into an ATM machine, seizing an unknown amount of money, and stole roughly $750 worth of electronics, including four Galaxy tablets and a Drone Backpack.

The manager of the store arrived just after 3:30 a.m., found the ATM destroyed and notified authorities of the break-in. Investigators have determined there is a yellow crowbar and sledgehammer that were used to gain access to the ATM and that is consistent with the Target burglaries in the other states.

A proposal for a solid waste transfer station in Statham apparently won’t be getting a permit any time soon from the city.
The transfer station, which would sit on about eight acres of land in the Statham Industrial Park, generated opposition from Robert Wall, owner of CableEast, a fiber optic company in the park, and a number of area residents.
The group attended the City Council work session last week.
Wall and some supporters also were at the council meeting Tuesday.
Mayor Robert Bridges told Wall after his presentation Thursday, “the city will not be giving a permit (for the transfer station) until a judge or lawyer tells us to.”
Wall said he appreciates the city’s work with him and emphasized his company and he support the city. But he also said he has retained a Winder lawyer.
Wall argued that the city’s zoning of M-1 for the property does not allow for a transfer station.
He said it would require a “conditional use” permit, which could be approved only after a specific hearing, and advertising, about it.
Wall also said the industrial park has protective covenants which would not allow for the transfer station in the park. Those covenants require property owners to get permission for anything “that’s not a standard use,” he said.
“We think the legal facts are on our side on more than one front,” he said.
Wall said the same people had tried to establish a transfer station in Oconee and Barrow counties and had been rejected.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, Wall repeated his contention that a council vote in May 2015 was not appropriate for the transfer station use of the property.
In other business, the council approved extending the closing date for a Georgia Environmental Financing Authority loan until May.
Jerry Hood, vice president with Environmental Management Inc., the city’s engineer, told council that should be enough time to complete work at the wastewater treatment plant.
He said the change would not alter the interest rate or the total amount of the loan for the wastewater plant improvements.

A state legal office for attorneys issued a letter Tuesday that does not “find any cause to support criminal charges” against a Statham police officer.
However, the letter from the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia also says, “It is important that Officer (Marc) Lofton receive additional training if he intends to continue making DUI cases, especially where prescription drugs are involved.”
The PAC was asked to review DUI – less safe cases brought by Lofton. District Attorney Brad Smith referred the cases to the legal agency.
He said a group of citizens had brought him a set of cases that he reviewed. The same people, he said, brought another half dozen cases to him Dec. 8.
He referred the cases to the PAC on Dec. 12.
Charles Spahos, executive director of the PAC of Georgia, said his office reviewed the cases and the letter was to be sent to Smith on Tuesday.
Smith forwarded the letter to the Barrow News-Journal.
Lofton has been the target of complaints by a group of citizens for months. He has been accused of making up charges, lying on incident reports and lying when he testifies.
Statham Police Chief Allan Johnston prepared a report, which shows Lofton brought DUI – less safe charges in more than 50 cases.[Full Story »]

Revenue from fines has tripled since 2014 in Statham because the town bought license plate readers, which give police specific information about traffic violation or outstanding warrants, the city’s police chief said at last week’s City Council work session.
The city’s revenue from fines was budgeted at about $71,000 for 2014. It is now budgeted at $250,000.
Statham and its police department have been under fire from a group of citizens who have complained that Officer Marc Lofton has made illegal stops, lied about the circumstances and/or charges and made up charges against those he stopped.
Chief Allan Johnston started to give the same report about tag readers at Tuesday’s council meeting. He veered into talking about the effects of drugs, saying the department would continue “aggressive” enforcement.
He repeatedly said the city could not get rid of drugs, but Johnston emphasized anyone who uses or sells drugs should go elsewhere.
“If this is your way of life, I suggest you don’t come to Statham,” Johnston said.
He also said he told Mayor Robert Bridges if the department “went after” drugs, “the pushback’s coming. Well, here it is.”
The department was accused in November of “policing for profit.”
Johnston’s report Thursday was to refute that accusation.
“The accusation of ‘policing for profit’ is absurd and false,” Johnston declared. “We are doing our job — what we were hired to do.
“If I were running a ‘policing for profit’ campaign, why not hire 20 more officers and have court fines in the cool millions,” Johnston said in his report.
He said officers could “sit on the side of the road and just wait for an alert” to ensure increases in money from fines.
He said Statham bought the LPRs in 2014. The device reads tags of passing cars and checks insurance coverage, tags’ expiration dates, driver’s licenses, warrants against the registered owner and whether or not the car is stolen.
He said the reader “gives the officer an alert and photo of the tag or vehicle all in a fraction of a second.”
He called the LPRs “a great tool,” but he said the readers are expensive.
Johnston said Statham police have had 342,000 “detections” since they were bought but could only get cars stopped for 3,613 of those.
He said that is because only one officer is on duty at a time.
Department of Transportation traffic counts show that more than 47,000 vehicles a day go through Statham on six roads or intersections. More than half that total is for Ga. 316 between Athens and Interstate 85.
Traffic through the town is more than 17.2 million vehicles a year, Johnston said.

Work on six Auburn roads, including repairs and speed table installations among other tasks, was scheduled to be performed this week after City Council gave it the green light last week.
At its work session on Thursday, council approved a $19,652 bid by Tri-State Asphalt, Inc. of Loganville to complete the work, which includes:
•$6,510 in repairs to Sixth Street at Sixth Avenue, Willowgate Trace and Lakeview Drive.
•$6,350 for the installation of two speed tables on Carter Road
•$970 for striping on Fourth Avenue
•$5,822 for the installation of a new parking area at the North Georgia School of Dance studio on Fifth Street.
The bid beat out one of $22,900 by Brown’s Asphalt Maintenance, Inc. of Winterville. Funding for the work will come from the city’s 2012 Barrow County SPLOST fund, city administrator Ron Griffith said.

Election
qualifying dates, fees
Also at Thursday’s meeting, staff presented council with the proposed qualifying dates and fees for the 2017 municipal election.
The qualifying fees would be $144 for the races for the at-large council seats held by Robert Vogel and Bill Ackworth.
The qualifying fee is based on 3 percent of council members’ $4,800 annual salary.
Qualifying would be Monday, Aug. 21 through Friday Aug. 25, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday at City Hall, 1369, Fourth Ave.